Garb of Being - Embodiment and the Pursuit of Holiness in Late Ancient Christianity

This collection of essays explores how the body became a touchstone for late antique practice and religious imagination through stories from the eastern Christian world of antiquity: monks and martyrs, families and congregations, and textual bodies from antiquity subject to modern interpretations.

List of contents

List of Abbreviations | xi

Introduction. Dangling Bodies, Robes of Glory: The Garb of Embodiment in Ancient Christianity

Georgia Frank, Susan R. Holman, and Andrew S. Jacobs | 1

Part I: Making Bodies

Body and Soul: Union in Creation, Reunion at Resurrection

Frances Young | 15

Jesus's Dazzling Garments: Origen's Exegesis of the Transfiguration

in the Commentary on Matthew

Arthur P. Urbano | 35

Conversing with Clothes: Germanos and Mary's Belt

Thomas Arentzen | 57

Part II: Performing Bodies

"Denominationalism" in Fourth-Century Syria: Readings in

Saint Ephraem's Hymns against Heresies, Madr¿shê 22-24

Sidney H. Griffith | 79

A School for the Soul: John Chrysostom on Mim¿sis and the Force of Ritual Habit

Rebecca Stephens Falcasantos | 101

A Question of Character: The "Labor of Composition" as

"Preventative Medicine" in Theodoret of Cyrrhus's Religious History

Rebecca Krawiec | 124

"I Want to Be Alone": Ascetic Celebrity and the Splendid

Isolation of Simeon Stylites

Andrew S. Jacobs | 145

Crowds and Collective Affect in Romanos's Biblical Retellings

Georgia Frank | 169

Christian Legend in Medieval Iraq: Siblings, Sacrifice, and Sanctity in Behnam and Sarah

Jeanne-Nicole Mellon Saint-Laurent | 191

Part III: Scripting Bodies

Five Women Martyrs: From Persia to Crete

Sebastian Brock | 221

Gregory of Nazianzus's Poetic Ascetic Aesthetic

Suzanne Abrams Rebillard | 234

Eclipsed in Exile: In Defense of Athanasius and the Ethiopians

Bernadette McNary-Zak | 263

Sacred Bonds: Religion, Relationships, and the Art of Pedagogy

Constance M. Furey | 276

"And Yet the Books": Patristics in the Footnotes

Susan R. Holman | 294

Cultural Heritage Preservation and Canon Formation:

What Syriac and Coptic Can Teach Usabout the Historiography of the Digital Humanities

Caroline T. Schroeder | 318

Bibliography | 347

List of Contributors | 391

Index | 397

About the author

Georgia Frank (Edited By)

Georgia Frank is Professor of Religion at Colgate University.

Andrew Jacobs (Edited By)

Andrew S. Jacobs is Senior Fellow at the Center for the Study of World Religions at Harvard University.

Susan Holman (Edited By)

Susan R. Holman is the Eckrich Chair and Professor of Religion and the Healing Arts at Valparaiso University.

Product details

• Authors: Dr. Georgia Holman Frank, Georgia (EDT)/ Jacobs Frank, Georgia Holman Frank
• Assisted by: Dr. Georgia Frank (Editor), Georgia Frank (Editor), Dr. Susan Holman (Editor), Susan Holman (Editor), Andrew Jacobs (Editor), Dr. Andrew Jacobs (Editor)
• Publisher: Fordham University Press
• Languages: English
• Product format: Hardback
• Released: 30.11.2019
• EAN: 9780823287024
• ISBN: 978-0-8232-8702-4
• No. of pages: 277
• Series: Orthodox Christianity and Contemporary Thought; Orthodox Christianity and Cont
• Subject: Humanities, art, music > Religion/theology > Christianity